Brief Visit to Lareen (1/4)

Within 3 days, an old couple shows up at the Valor Hall's inner gate. Despite being dressed simply, the pair are both escorted by a mini platoon of heavily armed bodyguards.

They barely get to knock on the main gate when it suddenly swings outward, and old Haalfrin walks out with a straight spine and his hands behind his back. Unlike before, the man is wearing a simple Lareen garb, as to not attract too much attention during his visit.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gaman?" Haalfrin asks in fluent Lareen.

"Congratulations on learning our tongue so perfectly," the old woman says with a polite bow.

"Eh. It's been several decades by now. It'd be strange if I hadn't learned your language," Haalfrin replies casually. "Anyway, you ready to go?"

Mr. Gaman extends a hand to Haalfrin. "Ready whenever you are."

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Haalfrin ends up chatting with the Gaman couple on the way out of the Valor Hall. Since he picked up their invitation at random, he actually has no idea who they are. Well, he knows their names, but not their identities.

They, however, know a great deal about Haalfrin already, so that makes the conversation a little awkward for him.

As it turns out, the Gaman couple both own a large trading company. They're one of the few companies who had enough connections in the government to extend their influence across the World Gate.

…But when the pair of old merchants start talking more about their business, Haalfrin actually starts to get confused. They said that they were a research institution, but why is it that they're dabbling in construction, enchantment research, golem manufacturing… and luxury items… and cosmetics…?

So, they do a little bit of everything? Why couldn't they just say so before?

Other than learning about them, the old merchants also ask him about his time in the Valor Hall. Particularly, they're curious about his war long ago with Queen Fina.

As it turns out, that history boy – I mean, "Lyr Belna" finished collected all the Arkin's stories, and he's still in the middle of compiling a comprehensible history of the Eternal War.

Even still, his work is well known by anyone of importance in Lareen. After all, Lyr's books detail some extremely important events for the Rehkin's world. It explains the origins of their goddess, Fina, as well as the human's role in fighting her off, back when she was "cursed" with a split soul.

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When they finally get to the final gate before leaving the Valor Hall, Haalfrin suddenly puts on a standard Brancotte helmet, and he casts a quick spell to obscure his face.

"Umm… Sir?" Mr. Gaman asks, "You don't need to go so far to hide your identity. I promise that none of the officials are going to leak the news of you crossing the World Gate to the public."

"It's not them I'm worried about," Haalfrin says while vigilantly looking at the skies. "I'm the only human strong enough to fight off any of Dakka's and Fina's children. If they hear that I'm not guarding the gate, some of them might make run for it and flee into your world."

"F-flee?" Mrs. Gaman asks in alarm. "Why such strong language?"

Haalfrin turns his head to the old woman and resists the urge to spit out a laugh. "…Let's just say that young dragons in particular are completely out of control. Imagine that a child were strong enough to flatten a city. Now, imagine that the child escaped out of his parent's supervision and goes trapsing about your world."

"Heh…," Mr. Gaman chuckles. "Have you had to stop any dragonlings from coming through so far?"

"Yeah. About 3 or 4. After I beat the first couple of them up, they stopped coming… I can't guarantee that they'll stay away if they realize that I'm gone, though."

"Well, thank you for your service," Mr. Gaman smiles. "Well, you ready to leave for the gate?"

Just as he says this, a large floating disk of white and red energy appears right off the cliff face, just beyond the main gate.

The Gamans and their bodyguards all step onto the red disk… and the thing seems to be solid.

"Interesting…," Haalfrin mumbles under his breath.

He steps onto the disk and feels the disk barely ripple. His mana senses are telling him that this disk is made of incorporeal light… yet it's solid.

"Very interesting."

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Once they make the short trip to the Arra side of the World Gate, Haalfrin finally gets a closer look at the structures that Lareen has placed around it. He's particularly curious about what kind of security they put around it.

For the most part, Haalfrin sees several layers of concrete walls – all reinforced with enchantments, of course.

Well, the enchantments are all so closely packed together that Haalfrin can't make out individual spells, though he can guess what they are.

'Durability, mana resistant, anti-scrying, Spirit Stone… Am I missing anything?' Haalfrin wonders listlessly as they set down on the ground and start going through the security check.

Going through security is actually quite simple – well, not as simpler as when Brancotte controlled the World Gate.

All they do is make the Gaman couple present their identity badges. The security guards then performs a quick bloodline check with Spirit magic, then some facial recognition magic.

After they ascertain that these people are who they say they are, they're let through.

When it comes Haalfrin's time to go through, they end up using some sort of advanced enchantment to record how his Spirit Threads are arranged.

This is so that they can recognize his bloodline later on and use it to identify him.

After that, Haalfrin is told to stand on some sort of pressure plate.

As soon as he steps on it, a loud beeping starts blaring around him, and several flashing lights start shining on him.

What just went wrong?

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In alarm, the security guards immediately rush forward and point enchanted staffs at him. "Don't move! We're going to need you to close your eyes, hold your hands up, keep still, and not say anything. Just do as we say!"

Mr. Gaman has already gone through the gate, but his wife sees what's happening to their guest, and she gasps in shock.

Almost in a blind rage, the old woman shuffles over to the nearest guard and screams in his face, "What do you think you're doing!? He's my guest!"

The guard – a rather lanky looking young man with an unremarkable face – points at Haalfrin and says, "The mana reading on the man is off the charts. That man has enough mana on him to blow up a country! We can't just let anyone through the gate if they're carrying a weapon like that on them!"

As far as the guards know, anyone with that much mana on them must be carrying some kind of bomb. It's common sense to detain these people.

To the side, Haalfrin hears what the guard says to Mrs. Gaman, and the anger in his heart immediately dissipates. In fact, he's starting to think that this situation is a little funny.

"It's fine, Madame Gaman," Haalfrin says light-heartedly. "I'll do as they say. It's not a big deal, anyway."

Seeing the stubborn old woman not budging, Haalfrin waves her off, "Shoo, shoo. I'll be fine."

Once the old woman leaves, Haalfrin looks over at the guard and says in a terse tone, "Just get it over with."

"All right. I'm going to need you to take off all of your enchanted articles and put it in the bin to your left. You'll move slowly, and you won't say a word."

These measures are, of course, to prevent a mage from casting an effective spell.

Dra magic (physical enhancement and elemental bending) require swift and powerful movements to make a spell, so having the mage move slowly will greatly mitigate the damage they do if the decide to go out of control.

As for not speaking… Anything with Fel magic (alchemy and enchanting) requires the caster to speak – usually in the form of a chant or song.

As for Reh magic (Spirit Magic)… The best they can do is surround the security check room with Spirit Stone and hope for the best. With Reh Spells purely being cast with the mage's Will, there's little you can do to prevent them from casting, other than knocking them out.

…

Once Haalfrin puts his enchanted bracelets in the bin and sets his space bag down, the guards move the bin away from him and start inspecting his belongings.

"These things are all clear." another guard further down the line says – all while holding up Haalfrin's space bag.

"All right," the lanky guard tells Haalfrin. "Step on the sensor again."

Haalfrin complies… and the moment his foot pushes on the pressure plate, the obnoxious beeping goes off again.

"S-sir? We're going to need you to take ALL of your magic items off."

Haalfrin knows that he's not supposed to speak, so he slowly pats his sides and shrugs – body language for, "Got nuthin' for ya'."

"In that case you're going to n-need to t-take your clothes off," the guard tells Haalfrin.

To ensure Haalfrin's privacy, a quick spell is cast by one of the guards, and some blinders appear out of thin air – shielding Haalfrin's view from everyone else.

Haalfrin's an old man by now, and we can't have him traumatizing everyone, now can we?

Once Haalfrin strips completely bare (except for the bandages covering his arms and legs), he steps on the pressure plate again…

… and the beeping goes off again…